Post-FIFA World Cup depression: a fleeting symptom or a disturbing disorder?
The World Cup changes every four years to preoccupy people around the world, so that following its competitions and its events becomes the most prominent event that dominates their diaries. With the extension of the largest football tournament for the first popular sports game for about a month, experts and mental health specialists warn of the exposure of many of the World Cup followers to the shock of the curtain dropping on its activities and suffering from depression and laziness.
Specialists and psychological and social experts indicate that this is mainly due to the fans and supporters of the participating teams getting used to a semi-daily, enthusiastic, and renewed lifestyle based on suspense, competition, breaking monotony, and unloading emotional charges in the context of a football struggle based on enjoyment and creativity. They pointed to the need for balance, controlling emotions, not being overly aggressive, and being drawn away from the regrets and grumbling of some fans of the "round witch" because of the end of the World Cup and focusing on returning to their usual lifestyle while searching for enjoyable and useful hobbies and activities, which dispelled their feelings of alienation and boredom within what is known as post-depression. The end of the World Cup
What does psychiatry say?
Post-World Cup depression is a common psychological symptom among many football fans, for whom the World Cup is the pinnacle of their interaction with the game and an expression of their strong attachment to it, which is the result of three basic psychological reasons:
The first: It is related to a need inherent in human nature, which is the human tendency to conflict with the other, which has developed into a conflict between states, and thus there is a great similarity between the battlefield and the playing field. In war, two armies fight for the victory of one and the defeat of the other, and this is exactly what happens in a football match. which begins with the playing of national anthems and the raising of flags and symbols, and thus the victor experiences the euphoria of achievement and the pleasure of excelling over the other, accompanied by the utmost emotions of joy, dancing, and venting of repressed emotions, whereas the defeated lives the bitterness of loss, sorrow, and self-flagellation.
The second: is the human need to identify with the victor, in the sense that the person represents an attribute of the other in order to transform completely or partially into his likeness, or to merge with him completely and become both (he and his team) one, as is common among fans, who are possessed by a state of hysteria that charges the center of emotions. IN his brain, a flow of hormones pushes him to express a sense of pride, release violence, and vent pent-up aggression through behaviors, including undressing and dancing with joy in victory, while the defeated feels frustrated, complains, cries, and retreats.
Third: In light of the monotony of daily life and its often boring routine, the brain needs activation and stimulation, and here the football game, with its anticipation, excitement, and screams, removes the brain from its daily preoccupation with life’s concerns and refreshes it with the emotions and instructions it causes by secreting stimulating hormones.